Philip Mandel, 92

ay, Montauk, and Jupiter, Fla., died on Feb. 10 after a year’s illness. He was 92. Mr. Mandel was a founder and partner of Golden and Mandel, a New York City law firm. He had been a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.
He was born on April 14, 1920, in Brooklyn to Abraham and Sophie Mandel. His schooling was in his home borough, then at Cornell University, where he received an award for a play he wrote. While at Cornell, he met the woman he would marry, Florence Doris Miller. They wed on Aug. 11, 1943, and remained together for 66 years, until her death in 2009.
The war interrupted his education at Yale Law School. He returned, however, serving as articles editor of the Yale Law Review while completing his degree.
During the war, while Lieutenant Mandel was stationed in Nebraska, he taught “blind” flying using the Link Trainer, a windowless box with working flight controls in which future combat pilots were shut. Although he had not yet finished law school, he acted as a prosecutor in Army legal proceedings.
From 1947 to ’49 Mr. Mandel worked for the Paul Weiss law firm in New York City, then went into private practice. He co-founded Golden and Mandel in the 1970s, commuting from his house in Roslyn, where the couple had lived beginning in about 1949. He represented clients in a number of high-profile corporate cases, his family said, including one against The New York Times in a cable television dispute, which resulted in a $6 million award.
The Mandels bought their Montauk vacation and weekend house in 1963. Over the years, they spent more and more time there, eventually making it their home. Mr. Mandel, a lifelong fisherman, chased big striped bass from his boat, the Castaway, a 26-foot Brownell, and spent countless hours surfcasting — barefoot — on the ocean beaches. In later years, the couple spent their winters in Florida, where Mr. Mandel’s fishing continued throughout the year.
He is survived by their children, Dorsey Mayer of Roslyn, Philip M. Mandel of Montauk, and Marc O. Mandel of Sea Cliff, as well as by six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A graveside service was conducted by Rabbi Richard Berman of Temple Judea of Manhasset at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens on Feb. 12.